Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    Random slow internet on all apple devices only

    General pfSense Questions
    12
    40
    8.3k
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • T
      tim.mcmanus
      last edited by

      Just for kicks, change the DNS servers on one Apple device to Google's at 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.  See if that makes a difference.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • B
        bobber10
        last edited by

        @tim.mcmanus:

        Just for kicks, change the DNS servers on one Apple device to Google's at 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.  See if that makes a difference.

        Tried it even though I hate Google dns. Unfortunately didn't help anything.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • DerelictD
          Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
          last edited by

          Could be something IPv6-related if it's not all set up properly but the devices think IPv6 should be available for some reason.

          Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
          A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
          DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
          Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • F
            fmaxwell
            last edited by

            @bobber10:

            (probably because they are apple people so dont understand the underlying technology and cannot be bothered too)

            Prejudice and stereotyping, on any basis, is never appropriate.

            I switched to Apple products after three decades because I do "understand the underlying technology."  I was using a Network General Sniffer Network Analyzer years before most people even knew such things existed.  I've written real-time, multitasking kernels for embedded systems, including satellite ground support equipment.  I've got more electronic test equipment in my home than I could even name.

            Some of us became "Apple people" because we tired of creaky, plastic computers built on the cheap running operating systems that were more pasted together than architected.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • B
              bobber10
              last edited by

              @Derelict:

              Could be something IPv6-related if it's not all set up properly but the devices think IPv6 should be available for some reason.

              Ipv6 is disabled.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • A
                almabes
                last edited by

                Could it be something to do with that Apple IP saving "feature" that makes ARP logs go nuts?

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • B
                  bobber10
                  last edited by

                  @almabes:

                  Could it be something to do with that Apple IP saving "feature" that makes ARP logs go nuts?

                  Never heard of this, could you explain? Also it seemed to have happened out of the blue really so im not sure why this would only start now. It doesnt seem to be an issue with the AP though, at least in my opinion, since my fire tv and laptop have no issues at all and stream 1080p content flawlessly.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • A
                    almabes
                    last edited by

                    https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=93386.msg520015#msg520015

                    Bonjour Sleep Proxy.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • T
                      tim.mcmanus
                      last edited by

                      I run a nearly exclusive Apple network in my office (full disclosure, I am an Apple Consultant), and haven't seen an issue like this.  As I mentioned earlier, DNS is usually the culprit when the network slows down, but you've checked that already.

                      I assume you've rebooted every device on the network–from the ISP gear out to the end-user devices.  I have one of the new Airport Extremes, and I think it has some issues.  It has slowed to a crawl a couple of times, and a reboot usually resolves the issue.  I haven't tried to identify the root cause because it was a 1-2 time issue.

                      If you hardwire a Mac does the slow network issue persist?

                      If none of those suggestions help, you'll probably want to put a packet sniffer before and after pfSense to see if that's the issue.  I don't know why it would be, but stranger things have happened.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • B
                        bobber10
                        last edited by

                        @tim.mcmanus:

                        I run a nearly exclusive Apple network in my office (full disclosure, I am an Apple Consultant), and haven't seen an issue like this.  As I mentioned earlier, DNS is usually the culprit when the network slows down, but you've checked that already.

                        I assume you've rebooted every device on the network–from the ISP gear out to the end-user devices.  I have one of the new Airport Extremes, and I think it has some issues.  It has slowed to a crawl a couple of times, and a reboot usually resolves the issue.  I haven't tried to identify the root cause because it was a 1-2 time issue.

                        If you hardwire a Mac does the slow network issue persist?

                        If none of those suggestions help, you'll probably want to put a packet sniffer before and after pfSense to see if that's the issue.  I don't know why it would be, but stranger things have happened.

                        Yes I have tried rebooting everything but it didnt seem to fix anything. I will try hard wiring the mac eventually to see if that at least solves the macs issue but that would require a lot of work moving it, which at the moment i cant do because its not my computer. Anyways that wouldn't really solve the issue at hand since my main concern is for the wifi issues with the numerous apple devices on my network.

                        Edit: i just did a packet capture with pfsenses gui and it seemed while i was doing the capture my iphones speed was normal. It was loading instagram and everything normally it seemed. But after i stopped the capture it slowed down again.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • ?
                          Guest
                          last edited by

                          Have you tested it on other wireless networks? (friends/McDonalds/Starbucks/Chickfa) How is the performance over the air? How is it slow, as in it starts loading an image and takes a while ("drawing" the image) … or does it take a while to even begin loading, but is fast once it begins? Are they plugged in when you test (something that might trigger a profile/battery-saving change)?

                          don't trust anything ookla based (speedtest.net etc..).

                          Has your iOS been updated recently? Do you use any applications on the iDevices like a task manager? How many iDevices have you tried and are they all running the same flavor of iOS?

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • B
                            bobber10
                            last edited by

                            @heavy1metal:

                            Have you tested it on other wireless networks? (friends/McDonalds/Starbucks/Chickfa) How is the performance over the air? How is it slow, as in it starts loading an image and takes a while ("drawing" the image) … or does it take a while to even begin loading, but is fast once it begins? Are they plugged in when you test (something that might trigger a profile/battery-saving change)?

                            don't trust anything ookla based (speedtest.net etc..).

                            Has your iOS been updated recently? Do you use any applications on the iDevices like a task manager? How many iDevices have you tried and are they all running the same flavor of iOS?

                            Yes i have tested on friends networks as well as my guest network and the performance is good. It takes a while to even begin loading. They are not plugged in during testing. Why dont you like ookla tests? IOS has not been updated recently and they are all running ios 8. Dont use any task managers.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • T
                              tim.mcmanus
                              last edited by

                              You could try backing up your pfSense settings and resetting it to factory defaults.  Quickly get WiFi and the Internet up and running, and see if that improves things.  Then you can revert back to your saved settings to get everything back prior to testing.

                              This is a very odd issue.

                              Ookla tests are optimized and their testing can be compressed to artificially test bandwidth.  Here is a different bandwidth test tool that may provide alternative results.

                              http://www.dslreports.com/speedtest

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • ?
                                Guest
                                last edited by

                                @bobber10:

                                @heavy1metal:

                                Have you tested it on other wireless networks? (friends/McDonalds/Starbucks/Chickfa) How is the performance over the air? How is it slow, as in it starts loading an image and takes a while ("drawing" the image) … or does it take a while to even begin loading, but is fast once it begins? Are they plugged in when you test (something that might trigger a profile/battery-saving change)?

                                don't trust anything ookla based (speedtest.net etc..).

                                Has your iOS been updated recently? Do you use any applications on the iDevices like a task manager? How many iDevices have you tried and are they all running the same flavor of iOS?

                                Yes i have tested on friends networks as well as my guest network and the performance is good. It takes a while to even begin loading. They are not plugged in during testing. Why dont you like ookla tests? IOS has not been updated recently and they are all running ios 8. Dont use any task managers.

                                As Tim said regarding ookla, their results are inflated and their test methods aren't accurate.

                                After it's slow to begin loading, is it fast loading? Does your guest network bypass pfsense?

                                Generally the initial loading would be it trying to resolve DNS names. Are you blocking any ranges of IPs via pfblocker or some other IP list? Have you tried connecting to a website directly via its IP?

                                I also would suggest what Tim said, backup your config and give pfsense a clean install, see if the problem persists.

                                Sorry for the bombarding of questions, just trying to get a little more on what's happening in the background.

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • B
                                  bobber10
                                  last edited by

                                  @heavy1metal:

                                  @bobber10:

                                  @heavy1metal:

                                  Have you tested it on other wireless networks? (friends/McDonalds/Starbucks/Chickfa) How is the performance over the air? How is it slow, as in it starts loading an image and takes a while ("drawing" the image) … or does it take a while to even begin loading, but is fast once it begins? Are they plugged in when you test (something that might trigger a profile/battery-saving change)?

                                  don't trust anything ookla based (speedtest.net etc..).

                                  Has your iOS been updated recently? Do you use any applications on the iDevices like a task manager? How many iDevices have you tried and are they all running the same flavor of iOS?

                                  Yes i have tested on friends networks as well as my guest network and the performance is good. It takes a while to even begin loading. They are not plugged in during testing. Why dont you like ookla tests? IOS has not been updated recently and they are all running ios 8. Dont use any task managers.

                                  As Tim said regarding ookla, their results are inflated and their test methods aren't accurate.

                                  After it's slow to begin loading, is it fast loading? Does your guest network bypass pfsense?

                                  Generally the initial loading would be it trying to resolve DNS names. Are you blocking any ranges of IPs via pfblocker or some other IP list? Have you tried connecting to a website directly via its IP?

                                  I also would suggest what Tim said, backup your config and give pfsense a clean install, see if the problem persists.

                                  Sorry for the bombarding of questions, just trying to get a little more on what's happening in the background.

                                  its hard to say, it seems after i click on an image on instagram it shows the loading screen but doesnt move for a couple of seconds and then all of the sudden it loads it fast. I have a dns app on my iphone that is basically equivlant to the dig command from bind so it shows lookup times, it doesnt seem that the lookups are slow by any means, always below 70ms. Not blocking anything besides the bogon networks.

                                  Just did a complete reinstall of pfsense with a usb stick and then changed the config back to how i had it manually instead of restore because i wanted to make sure that wouldnt cause an issue somehow. Still getting this problem.

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • DerelictD
                                    Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
                                    last edited by

                                    Does it affect macs too?  Run ICSI netalyzr

                                    Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
                                    A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
                                    DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
                                    Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • F
                                      firewalluser
                                      last edited by

                                      Travel time will be the same but you have the browser overhead handling the encryption and the webserver overhead handling the encryption, the fw and everything in between will just route the tcp/ip packets.

                                      Capitalism, currently The World's best Entertainment Control System and YOU cant buy it! But you can buy this, or some of this or some of these

                                      Asch Conformity, mainly the blind leading the blind.

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • P
                                        preid
                                        last edited by

                                        I use a lot of Ubiquiti APs myself, and if you run over to their forums, you'll find mention of Apple devices not playing nice with various wireless hardware (not just Ubiquiti). Certain firmware combinations of Apple devices and wireless hardware will often result in disconnects, slow downs, and other random issues. I've run into it with Ubiquiti, Cisco, SonicWALL, and various consumer-grade APs over the years.

                                        Try upgrading the firmware on your Ubiquiti APs (which means upgrading the Ubiquiti controller software, which will then allow you to roll out the new firmware to the APs after). It may well solve the issue, and maybe even speed things up for other devices.

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • B
                                          bobber10
                                          last edited by

                                          @preid:

                                          I use a lot of Ubiquiti APs myself, and if you run over to their forums, you'll find mention of Apple devices not playing nice with various wireless hardware (not just Ubiquiti). Certain firmware combinations of Apple devices and wireless hardware will often result in disconnects, slow downs, and other random issues. I've run into it with Ubiquiti, Cisco, SonicWALL, and various consumer-grade APs over the years.

                                          Try upgrading the firmware on your Ubiquiti APs (which means upgrading the Ubiquiti controller software, which will then allow you to roll out the new firmware to the APs after). It may well solve the issue, and maybe even speed things up for other devices.

                                          Whats wierd though is that the ubiquiti was doing fine not long ago. And my firmware is already updated fully, its set to auto update. So im not sure what to do here.

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • G
                                            grandrivers
                                            last edited by

                                            i had similar or identical issue and didn't trouble shoot it correctly but removed from my mac book pro the connection to iphone and everything returned to normal was capped at like 5m down and under 1m up this only affected the unifi ap that they were connected to

                                            pfsense 2.4 super micro A1SRM-2558F
                                            C2558 8gig ECC  60gig SSD
                                            tripple Wan dual pppoe

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                            • First post
                                              Last post
                                            Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.